Sunday, 25 September 2011

The wrong project

Over the last 2 weeks I have continued to cast on like some sort of demented lunatic. I developed some weird system which involved different projects for different situations: projects for commuting, projects to do over breakfast and projects that need actual time and concentration and have to be put aside until some unknown point in the future when I have the opportunity to turn the heel/change the yarn/put the damn thing together. The problem is that all the projects inevitably turned into Need Time projects eventually, causing me to start casting on even!more!projects just for something to do.

Naturally, the whole thing was destined to fall down at some point, because I am just too disorganised to properly concentrate on more than one thing at once. Two things happened: 1, I reached my final week of study before a Scary Scary Technology Exam; and 2: I broke all my projects. Yep. They all went wrong - all at the same time! I dropped stitches; I knitted toes where there should have been heels; I misread charts; I ran out of yarn. In retrospect this was probably because all my brain power was on Scary Scary Exam, but it led to me going to work 4 days in a row WITHOUT ANY KNITTING. The horror - the horror! I felt naked when on the tube without any needles in my hands, like I'd done something disgraceful and appalling. I was sure all the commuters around me were secretly judging my lack of productive hobby. I felt shame.

On a happy note, I passed the exam. My reward was an entire day of crafts in my house with my BFF. I was SO looking forward to it - until we finished quilting and sat down to knit, and I realised I didn't have anything ongoing that didn't need fixing. Where to start? The thing that needed all the green ripping out? The thing that made no sense and required me to look up techniques on the internet? The thing made of a hairy yarn so dark green that although I knew it'd gone wrong, I couldn't even see what had happened? Or the thing which required changing colour and then the most boring set of decreases known to man? HOW TO DECIDE WHICH ONE TO WORK ON?! The urge to cast on something new was, let me tell you, overwhelming! Luckily, BFF pulled me out of my Yarn Frenzy and I managed to fix not one, not two, but ALL of those blasted projects - and finish* 2 of them. Oh yes, I am an actual genius. So now I am back on the straight and narrow, working on 3 (I think) projects and well on track to finish them and start new ones this week.

Did I mention Super Scary Exam is in 4 weeks?

* Where 'finish' = 'finish all the knitting'. I refused to spend my first day of knitting freedom with seaming and stuffing. REFUSED.